HAMDEN -- A Philadelphia man was arrested for stabbing a friend he was staying with on Monday night.

Kevin Jackson, 25, was arrested a short time after the 8:15 p.m. incident while he attempted to steal a machete from a New Haven Walmart, police said.

The stabbing victim was taken to Yale-New Haven Hospital with serious wounds in his abdomen and arm, said Capt. Ronald Smith, the Hamden police spokesman.

Jackson had been staying with a friend on Fourth Street and he began repeatedly knocking on his host's bedroom door, Smith said.

When the Hamden resident opened the door, Golding answered the knock, he was stabbed several times in the presence of his girlfriend and two small children. They subsequently locked themselves in the bedroom and called police, Smith said, and Jackson fled the scene.

He was charged with first-degree assault and two counts of risk of injury to a minor, and is being held on a $500,000 bond. Jackson is scheduled to appear in Superior Court in Meriden on Feb. 25th.